Long Term Evolution (LTE) communication networks have various network elements to provide wireless communication services to User Equipment (UE). Some examples of LTE network elements include: Mobility Management Entity (MME), PDN Gateway (P-GW), Service Gateway (S-GW), IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), Wireless Fidelity Gateway (WIFI GW), 2G/3G Gateway, Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), Media Server, and eNodeB. The LTE network elements are coupled by Internet Protocol (IP) links. The IP links are defined by the IP addresses of the LTE network elements at each end. IP routers between the LTE network elements route IP packets using these IP links.
The IP routers use routing tables to route IP packets based on their IP addresses. In some cases, the IP routers are logically partitioned into Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) instances. Each VRF instance has its own routing table and remains independent of the other VRFs. Separate VRFs may even handle the same IP address differently. In LTE networks, separate VRFs are often established for different wireless services. For example, there could be a VRF for prepaid Internet access and another VRF for Voice over LTE (VoLTE) services.
Unfortunately, the IP routers in an LTE network do not provide adequate data to associate the VRFs with other IP data. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that VRFs may share the same IP addresses. Current techniques for modeling IP links in an LTE network on a VRF basis are not efficient or effective.
Overview
A Long Term Evolution (LTE) network management system processes and displays Internet Protocol (IP) usage data between LTE network elements. A routing system exchanges IP packets between the LTE network elements using Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) instances. The routing system generates usage data associating individual ones on the VRF instances with amounts of IP packets exchanged between the LTE network elements. A network control system processes the usage data to determine the amounts of the IP packets exchanged between the LTE network elements for each of the individual VRF instances. The network control system graphically displays the amounts of IP packets exchanged between the LTE network elements for each of the individual VRF instances.